Dean Pay

Dean Pay (born 3 June 1969) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the NRL, and a former professional player who played in the late 1980s and 1990s.

He played for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the Parramatta Eels. He was an Australian and State of Origin representative for the NSW Blues.

Playing career

After winning the 1995 ARL Premiership with the Super League-aligned Bulldogs, the club lost Pay, along with other key players, Jim Dymock, Jason Smith and Jarrod McCracken, to the ARL-loyal Parramatta Eels. He was appointed the club's captain for the 1997 and 1998 seasons. Pay captained Parramatta to their first finals campaign in 11 years when the club finished 3rd in the 1997 ARL season. Parramatta would go on to lose 28-20 against the Newcastle Knights in the first week of the finals despite leading 20-0 at halftime. The following week, Parramatta were eliminated from the finals after losing to North Sydney 24-14.

The following season in 1998, Parramatta finished 4th and defeated eventual premiers Brisbane 15-10 at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre. In the preliminary final against Pay's former club Canterbury, Parramatta were winning 18-2 with less than 10 minutes to play and looked destined to reach their first grand final since 1986. In the following minutes, one of the greatest comebacks in finals history occurred when Canterbury scored 3 tries and took to the game into extra-time before winning 32-20. Pay was selected to play for Australia from the interchange bench in the 1998 Anzac Test.

In Pay's final season at Parramatta, the club finished 2nd and reached the preliminary final against Melbourne. Parramatta lead 16-0 at halftime but lost the match 18-16. The loss was also Pay's final game as a player.

In 2002, Pay was inducted into the Parramatta Eels hall of fame.

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